Janibek Alimkhanuly vs. Steven Butler this Saturday on ESPN

By Boxing News - 05/08/2023 - Comments

By Craig Daly: 2016 Olympian Janibek Alimkhanuly (13-0, 8 KOs) will be making his second defense of his WBO middleweight title this Saturday, May 13th, against #6 ranked Steven Butler (32-3-1, 26 KOs) in the main event in Stockton, California. Janibek-Butler event starts at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT and will be shown live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN.

Janibek recently struggled to defeat Denzel Bentley in his first fight as the WBO 160-lb champion last November. Boxing fans would have liked to have seen a rematch between them because their contest last year was an exciting one.

In the chief support bout, Jason Moloney (25-2, 19 KOs) will give it another try to capture a world title when he takes on Vincent Astrolabio (18-3, 13 KOs) for the vacant WBO bantamweight title.

Moloney-Astrolabio is fight unquestionably the best bout on the card and arguably should be the headliner.

The 32-year-old Moloney has tried and failed in two past attempts to capture a world title, losing to Naoya Inoue in 2020 and Emmanuel Rodriguez in 2018.

Moloney might come up short again, as the 26-year-old Astrolabio is in the prime of his career and has been looking impressive lately, beating former 118-lb champion Guillermo Rigondeaux last year and Nikolai Potapov.

Janibek-Butler undercard:

Jason Moloney vs. Vincent Astrolabio
Robson Conceicao vs. Nicolas Polanco
Javier Martinez vs. Joeshon James
Haven Brady Jr vs. D’Angelo Fuentes
Gabriel Flores Jr vs. Derrick Murray
Brian Norman Jr vs. Jesus Campos

The Canadian Butler, 27, is getting another world title shot after being knocked out in the fifth round by former WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion Ryota Murata.

It’s highly questionable whether Butler should be getting another world title shot after his knockout losses to Murata and journeyman Jose de Jesus Macias (28-11-4, 14 KOs), which took place in 2019. Butler was also knocked out by Brandon Cook in seven rounds in 2017.

Top Rank would like to turn Janibek into a star attraction, but that will be a next-to-impossible task without him fighting better opposition.

Alimkhanuly, 30, would like to fight the better-known guys at 160, like Jaime Munguia, Gennadiy Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, and Chris Eubank Jr. Unfortunately, none of those guys are available to fight Janibek, so Butler is as good as it gets for the Kazakhstan native.

“All of the middleweights have run scared, so I give Steven Butler a lot of credit for accepting the fight,” Janibek said. “I want to unify the division, but I cannot overlook Butler. He is a tough, powerful challenger, and I look forward to giving a tremendous show to the fans in Stockton and those watching on ESPN.”

“Janibek is the most avoided middleweight in the world, but Steven Butler did not hesitate to take on the challenge,” said Bob Arum.

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